In the fabrication and assembly of metal catalytic converter catalyst substrates, it has been proposed to either coil, fold or stack strips or sheets of corrugated metal foil or corrugated metal foil and flat metal foil to form the desired substrate crosssection which may be round, oval or polygon shaped. In either case, the foil is typically assembled in a preformed sheet metal shell housing one at a time with the layers of foil fixed relative to each other and to the housing by compressing loading and/or bonding (e.g. welding) and/or physical restraints (e.g. end rings and pins). While such prior fabrication and assembly methods have proven generally satisfactory, they are substantially limited in production rate and would require a plurality of assembly lines for motor vehicle usage where yearly production requirements numbers in the tens of millions of units.